Final count 2013

Cheltenham avenue, near Bat cave

The morning was to prove damp at Sherborne, but fortunately we were to carry out the last bat count of the year so we were under cover most of the time. Morris was on good form, possibly because he's soon off on a 6 week Australian adventure, and much historic information was imparted on quarries in the local area plus their bat populations. The temperatures recorded in the bat cave were fairly high and the bats certainly took advantage with a large grouping to be found at a 12 degree hot spot. So in the bat cave were 142 lesser horseshoes, 0 in the kennels, 0 in the bothy and 19 in the nursery cellar giving a total of 161. This was slightly down on the last count of 175 but apparently this is normal as some males disperse to other roosts in search of females, so we are expecting at the next planned survey, a higher count in January 2014.

Spent a dry and sunny lunch with a leisurely walk through the Pleasure Grounds on my way to the Cheltenham Avenue to witness the end of the Autumnal colours in the beech and larch. On the way back I had a quick look over the Broadwater where to my surprise was a new swan family with one cygnet {a little late in the season}. They were in the company of significant numbers of canada geese and various ducks.

The afternoon was spent in the nursery with the wood processor, generating and delivering 2 trailer loads for local customers. Bad light and further rain showers prevented further wood processing work so next week will be a concentrated effort to increase our wood supplies as much as possible {we'll probably finish off the remaining seasoned wood left} before the wood processor returns to Ebworth. Clearly we'll need the weather to cooperate so hopefully the expected winter snow will hold off a little longer.

Just in case there was any doubt regards this Governments record on 'being green', Mark Avery's 'nature check' blog reminds us in detail how badly they are doing against their own targets.